In the world of Scandal, Olivia Pope wasn’t just a fixer—she was a force of nature. With her signature white hat, tailored suits, and a glass of red wine never far from reach, Olivia turned chaos into calm and scandal into strategy. Whether handling high-profile sex scandals, government leaks, or cleaning up the President’s messes (both literal and political), Olivia always stayed five steps ahead. These 10 jaw-dropping crisis management moments prove why she redefined what it means to be powerful—and why when it all falls apart, you call Olivia Pope.
#10: Fixing Amanda Tanner’s Pregnancy Scandal – “Hell Hath No Fury” (Season 1, Episode 3)
Early in the series, Olivia takes on one of her first major cases connected to the White House—a woman named Amanda Tanner who claims to be pregnant with the President’s child. While the administration scrambles in panic, Olivia peels back the layers with cool precision.
Instead of discrediting Amanda or feeding the scandal, Olivia takes a different approach. She listens. She validates. And then she maneuvers. She arranges a private meeting, subtly pressures key White House players, and navigates the story with such control that no one dares make a move without her sign-off.
What makes this moment standout isn’t just her tactical prowess—it’s her empathy. Olivia manages the crisis and protects Amanda, proving she can juggle moral integrity with media control. It’s our first real taste of Olivia Pope not just as a gladiator in a suit, but as a master of emotional intelligence. The White House might have power, but Olivia has control.
#9: Covering Up Cyrus’s Hit Job – “Nobody Likes Babies” (Season 2, Episode 13)
When Cyrus orders a hit on a reporter threatening to expose Defiance—the rigged election scandal—he calls it off at the last second. But Olivia realizes how close he came to murder, and that the mess needs cleaning now.
In one of the tensest moments of Season 2, Olivia doesn’t just manage the optics—she protects the inner circle by carefully manipulating timelines, testimonies, and press releases. She coordinates with Quinn and Huck, neutralizes the threat, and makes sure that if anything gets out, Cyrus isn’t implicated.
What’s chilling here is how quickly Olivia adapts. Her ability to handle a near-murder with surgical calm shows that crisis management isn’t just spin—it’s survival. She keeps everyone out of prison while never revealing just how close they came to catastrophe. Olivia doesn’t panic. She plans. And that’s what saves them.
#8: Quashing the President’s Affair With Olivia Herself – “One for the Dog” (Season 2, Episode 10)
When Olivia becomes the scandal, everything shifts. Rumors about her affair with Fitz begin to bubble, and the media is ravenous. Instead of breaking down, Olivia steps back, gathers her team, and reclaims the narrative.
She crafts a strategy so layered and effective that it confuses even her own allies. First, she plants a false lead implicating another staffer. Then, she distances herself just enough to appear impartial, all while controlling the flow of information behind the scenes.
This moment is a masterclass in managing the unmanageable: becoming the story without losing power. Olivia doesn’t deny the affair—but she ensures no one can prove it. And in the process, she preserves the office of the President, her own image, and the fragile balance of her inner circle. It’s self-preservation at its most brilliant.
#7: Saving Mellie from a Leaked Abortion – “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” (Season 5, Episode 9)
Mellie Grant is one of Olivia’s fiercest rivals and most unlikely allies. When a secret about Mellie’s past abortion threatens to go public, Olivia swoops in—not just to protect Mellie, but to protect the entire administration.
Instead of hiding, Olivia flips the script. She preps Mellie to own the moment on live TV, transforming potential shame into empowerment. The way Olivia preps the talking points, tweaks the emotional beats, and times the reveal perfectly makes it clear: she’s not just fixing scandals, she’s rewriting them.
The moment Mellie delivers the speech, backed by Olivia’s coaching, is electrifying. It’s not just crisis management—it’s transformation. Olivia knows how to weaponize truth, reshape narratives, and make the press chase the story she wants them to. That’s power.
#6: Hacking the NSA Feed – “Any Questions?” (Season 2, Episode 21)
When a whistleblower hacks the NSA feed and threatens national security by exposing Olivia and her team’s involvement in rigging the election, Olivia doesn’t blink. She calls her gladiators, assesses the risk, and quickly crafts a multi-step plan to neutralize the threat.
She works every angle—government channels, media spin, and backdoor hacker tactics—to dismantle the crisis before it goes public. Her ability to speak to the media one moment and direct underground cyber tactics the next proves that Olivia is comfortable navigating any battlefield.
By the time the dust settles, the leak is contained, the whistleblower is silenced, and no one can connect her to the scandal. It’s cold. It’s clean. It’s Olivia Pope at her calculating best. This isn’t just spin—it’s war, and she’s a general.
#5: Taking Down B613 – “You Can’t Take Command” (Season 4, Episode 22)
B613—the covert, lethal government program that operates above the law—is one of Scandal’s darkest storylines. And no one wants to dismantle it more than Olivia Pope. When her own father, Rowan (aka Command), threatens to unleash B613 on her and her allies, Olivia does something unthinkable—she turns the tables.
Using knowledge, leverage, and her usual razor-sharp instincts, Olivia devises a plan that exposes B613’s operations to the Attorney General. But she doesn’t stop there. She finds the financial accounts, the paper trail, and even the bodies. She builds an airtight case, feeds it to David Rosen, and delivers the knockout blow: calling out her father in open court.
Watching her face off against Rowan—who’s always claimed she can’t win because she lacks the ruthlessness—is electrifying. Her line, “I am the hell and the high water,” gives chills. In that moment, Olivia proves that she doesn’t need B613’s tactics to win. She just needs the truth—and a game plan no one sees coming. Dismantling B613 wasn’t just a power play. It was personal. And she owned it.
#4: Controlling the Media Leak After Fitz Gets Shot – “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” (Season 2, Episode 8)
When President Fitz is shot, chaos reigns in the White House. The press is circling, staffers are panicking, and no one knows if the President will live. Enter Olivia Pope. While others crumble, she steps up and takes control—securing statements, handling the press, and ensuring that the public only hears exactly what she wants them to.
She blocks leaks, directs Cyrus, and even silences Mellie long enough to get a handle on the narrative. And when the Vice President tries to seize power, Olivia manipulates public opinion and insider information to keep the vultures at bay.
The strength of this moment lies in Olivia’s calm under fire. Her ability to project stability while working with incomplete information is what keeps the entire country from falling apart. Her whisper is stronger than any military order—and everyone listens. In this moment, Olivia isn’t just managing a crisis—she’s running the nation.
#3: Handling Olivia’s Own Kidnapping – “Run” (Season 4, Episode 10)
What happens when the fixer becomes the victim? After being kidnapped and held in a secret cell, Olivia doesn’t wait to be rescued—she starts managing her own hostage crisis. Even without her team or resources, Olivia gathers intel, manipulates her captors, and uses psychological warfare to sow chaos from within.
The moment she fakes a breakdown just to gain information and then uses that intel to make the kidnappers question each other is pure Pope strategy. Even in captivity, she’s observing, predicting, and playing the long game.
And when she finally gets access to a phone? She doesn’t call for help—she negotiates her own auction on the black market to control who buys her. That’s right—Olivia Pope literally puts a price on herself to outmaneuver global terrorists. It’s disturbing, brilliant, and undeniably badass. Even chained to a wall, she’s the smartest person in the room.
#2: “It’s Handled” – Quinn’s Murder Case – “Sweet Baby” (Season 1, Episode 1)
The line that launched a thousand white coats. In the very first episode, Quinn Perkins is accused of murdering a man in a hotel. She’s terrified, confused, and seemingly guilty. But Olivia Pope swoops in with her team, sizes up the situation, and utters those iconic words: “It’s handled.”
Olivia investigates timelines, uncovers inconsistencies in the evidence, and proves that Quinn was framed. The case is thrown out, and just like that, Olivia establishes herself as the ultimate fixer.
What’s striking is how fast Olivia works—and how ruthlessly. She doesn’t need weeks. She doesn’t hesitate. She knows what to do. This moment launched the tone of the entire series: when the world breaks, Olivia Pope doesn’t flinch. She takes control, rewrites the story, and walks away in heels like it was nothing.
And “It’s handled”? It instantly became a rallying cry for every Scandal fan and the phrase that defines Olivia’s entire empire.
#1: Olivia Takes Over the White House – “Transfer of Power” (Season 6, Episode 16)
After years of pulling strings behind the scenes, Olivia Pope officially steps into the role of White House Chief of Staff. But it’s her first day in power—when she seamlessly orchestrates the transition, neutralizes threats, and silences loose ends—that solidifies her as a queen of crisis.
With Fitz stepping down and Mellie taking office, Olivia ensures a clean handoff of power while also taking out a secret organization (once again), covering up multiple scandals, and rewriting the media narrative to paint Mellie as America’s new darling. She even threatens foreign dignitaries and rogue agents in the same hour.
What’s chilling—and brilliant—is the precision. Olivia commands the room with a single look. She weaponizes alliances, blackmails old enemies, and ensures that every potential problem is erased before the inauguration is even over.
In that moment, she becomes the very thing she fought against for years: Command. But she wears the crown like she was born for it. Watching Olivia Walk into the Oval Office—powerful, poised, unshakable—is the ultimate evolution of the fixer. She’s not just solving crises anymore—she is the crisis. And she controls every move on the board.
Olivia Pope didn’t just fix problems—she rewrote the rules of power. From silencing scandals to toppling shadow governments, she handled everything with elegance, strategy, and unmatched nerve. These ten crisis management moments remind us that when the world burns, Olivia doesn’t run. She walks into the fire with a plan. Because when she says, “It’s handled,” she means it.
